Weekend View: Mystery Behind the Death of Neha Chhikara at Sea

by OldSailor on January 3, 2010

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Here is the tragic story on the death of 23 year old Neha Chhikara, who was reported missing from Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Monarch of the Seas on December 31, 2009 near the Bahamas in the Atlantic on New Year’s Eve.

More disturbing information available are:

Neha Chhikara, a former air hostess was the wife of Ankit Dalal, a crewmember of the same cruise ship.

Later it was found from the vessel’s security camera footage that she jumped overboard from the 11th deck of the vessel.

Indian press reports that

the reason for her death as dowry harassment by Ankit Dalal who married her in 2008.

few hours before going overboard, she had sent an e-mail to her brother Anuj Chhikara in India that reads: “Ankit has been beating me up every day… I have lost the strength to live and am very depressed. I do not think he wants me to work on this ship. He has threatened me that he would get my appointment cancelled… I am under extreme torture…”

U.S Coast Guard launched a search operation by deploying their aircrafts and Coast Guard Cutter Cormorant but she could not be located.

Ankit Dalal reported about her disappearance only after nine hours of the incident, a possible reason for the unsuccessful search operations.